Best Comeback Oscar: Movie Smoking
Best Comeback Oscar: Movie Smoking
Movie Smoking Back to '50s Levels
Feb. 27, 2004 -- This year's Oscar for best comeback: smoking in movies.
Movie portrayals of smoking dropped by more than half by the early 1980s. A steady increase since then returned smoking to historic highs in 2002 movies.
The findings come from analysis of randomly selected, top-grossing U.S. films by Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco. Their report appears in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"In the real world, smoking has returned to levels observed in 1950, when smoking was nearly twice as prevalent in reality as it was in 2000," Glantz and colleagues write. "The pro-tobacco influence of the high smoking levels in recent movies will continue to be a pro-tobacco influence on teenagers for years to come unless remedial action is taken."
Why might this be a problem? Earlier this year, a Dartmouth study reported evidence that half of all teens who first try cigarettes do so because they saw it in the movies.
Glantz and colleagues counted the number of "tobacco incidents" -- smoking, tobacco ads, etc. -- per hour of film time. There were 10.7 incidents per hour in 1950, but only 4.9 incidents per hour in 1980-1982. An upward trend since then peaks at 10.9 incidents in 2002.
Most of the 2002 films that the researchers analyzed were aimed at teens: Die Another Day, xXx, Men in Black II, Star Wars Attack of the Clones, and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
Glantz and colleagues note that today there's a lot less smoking in real life than there was in the '50s. In 1950, 44% of Americans smoked. By 2000, smoking dropped by half, to 22.8% of Americans.
The researchers also note that in 1989, the tobacco industry denied that it was encouraging smoking in the movies and pledged to end product placement in films. However, Glantz and colleagues point to tobacco industry documents showing that other activities aimed at encouraging movie smoking continued until 1993 -- at least. But no matter who's responsible, they write, there's a public health problem.
Best Comeback Oscar: Movie Smoking
Movie Smoking Back to '50s Levels
Feb. 27, 2004 -- This year's Oscar for best comeback: smoking in movies.
Movie portrayals of smoking dropped by more than half by the early 1980s. A steady increase since then returned smoking to historic highs in 2002 movies.
The findings come from analysis of randomly selected, top-grossing U.S. films by Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco. Their report appears in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"In the real world, smoking has returned to levels observed in 1950, when smoking was nearly twice as prevalent in reality as it was in 2000," Glantz and colleagues write. "The pro-tobacco influence of the high smoking levels in recent movies will continue to be a pro-tobacco influence on teenagers for years to come unless remedial action is taken."
Why might this be a problem? Earlier this year, a Dartmouth study reported evidence that half of all teens who first try cigarettes do so because they saw it in the movies.
Lighting Up Back Up on Silver Screen
Glantz and colleagues counted the number of "tobacco incidents" -- smoking, tobacco ads, etc. -- per hour of film time. There were 10.7 incidents per hour in 1950, but only 4.9 incidents per hour in 1980-1982. An upward trend since then peaks at 10.9 incidents in 2002.
Most of the 2002 films that the researchers analyzed were aimed at teens: Die Another Day, xXx, Men in Black II, Star Wars Attack of the Clones, and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
Glantz and colleagues note that today there's a lot less smoking in real life than there was in the '50s. In 1950, 44% of Americans smoked. By 2000, smoking dropped by half, to 22.8% of Americans.
The researchers also note that in 1989, the tobacco industry denied that it was encouraging smoking in the movies and pledged to end product placement in films. However, Glantz and colleagues point to tobacco industry documents showing that other activities aimed at encouraging movie smoking continued until 1993 -- at least. But no matter who's responsible, they write, there's a public health problem.
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